Photovoltaic solar cell is the energy that not produces pollutants and also not creates any noises and harmful gases, so it is different from fossil fuel, which is not harmful for the environment.
Moreover, an energy resource is clean and unlimited...
Photovoltaic solar cell is the energy that not produces pollutants and also not creates any noises and harmful gases, so it is different from fossil fuel, which is not harmful for the environment.
Moreover, an energy resource is clean and unlimited. That's why photovoltaic industry is rapidly growing internationally as the life of general photovoltaic solar cell lasts more than 15 years.
As photovoltaic industry is developing, the amount that spent photovoltaic solar cell produces is continually and accordingly increasing. As a result, accumulation amount is expected to reach around 130,000 ton in 2030.
Although 90% of spent photovoltaic solar cell which all runs out is recyclable, most of them are shredded and grinded. It indicates that valued resources are wasting due to landfill and leaving alone.
For these reasons, various investigations of spent photovoltaic solar cell have been conducted for valued resources's collection and recycling. However, investigations especially collecting Cu and Ag from spent photovoltaic solar cell have never tried internationally.
This study is recovery of valuable metals such as Cu and Ag from photovoltaic ribbon of spent solar cell. First of all, to obtain copper ribbon and oxide scale, heat treatment by dry process was conducted. In addition, high purity of copper and silver was obtained from vacuum distillation and zone melting methods.